Subscribe | Sign In | Subscribe

Bank of Uganda

Single-storey building with a red roof and signs for Centenary Bank's CenteAgent and dfcu Agent, plus Airtel Money and other agent notices by the door.

Shilling in now familiar territory with another record low

Uganda’s shilling reached another record low on Friday, a day after the central bank resumed selling foreign currency
Glass-fronted European Investment Bank headquarters in Luxembourg, with flags of EU member states outside.
Green finance

EIB backing targets climate-risk rules at Ugandan banks

Uganda’s green taxonomy and existing climate-risk rules move closer to implementation under EIB Global support
A stack of Ugandan shilling banknotes—50,000, 20,000, 10,000, and 5,000—arranged in a currency counting machine.
Uganda Shilling

BoU turns to dollar sales as political warnings meet market pressure

Bank of Uganda sold foreign currency after rate rises failed to halt the shilling’s slide, despite warnings from Museveni and Ggoobi against using reserves
Street scene outside a luggage shop in downtown Kampala
Uganda Shilling

Shilling closes at record low a week after rate rise

Uganda’s shilling closed at Shs4,208.10 to the dollar, a record low, one week after the central bank raised its benchmark rate
A stack of Ugandan shilling banknotes—50,000, 20,000, 10,000, and 5,000—arranged in a currency counting machine.
Exchange rates

Shilling surrenders rate-hike gains as the dollar returns

Uganda’s shilling erased Wednesday’s gains by Friday, with the dollar back above its opening level on the day of the Bank of Uganda’s rate increase
An illustration for property, mortgages, bank loans and home savings. A model of a house sitting on architectural plans, with a blurred piggy bank in the background.
Explainer

What the Bank of Uganda’s rise to 12 per cent means for the shilling, fuel and loans

How the Bank of Uganda's increase in its policy rate to 12 per cent could affect the shilling, pump prices, and existing loans and savings
The Bank of Uganda's headquarters in Kampala

Bank of Uganda raises benchmark rate to 12 per cent at special meeting

Uganda’s central bank lifted its rate to 12 per cent, the largest increase since 2011, and raised its inflation forecasts as the shilling weakened
Trading screen showing a candlestick price chart that falls and then partly recovers, beside a list of share prices
Absa Africa Financial Markets Index

Uganda ranks fourth in Absa’s markets index, held back by pensions and depth

Uganda is the only one of 26 African countries scored in both years to lose ground in Absa's financial markets index since 2022, as Kenya and Ghana close in
Various currency notes of African countries are seen in this photo
Foreign exchange

Shilling opens past Shs4,150 as Bloomberg reports offshore selling of bonds

The shilling has lost 12.8 per cent this year, and Absa and Alpha Capital Partners name offshore selling, corporate dollar demand and energy costs

More Bank of Uganda

11 October 2026

Bank of Uganda

Provision releases and currency gains drive Bank of Uganda’s doubled surplus

Bank of Uganda's reported surplus doubled to Shs1.3tn ($365.5mn), but underlying earnings fell once provisions and currency gains are removed

The head office of the Bank of Uganda in Kampala
9 October 2026

Mobile payments

Mobile money value reaches 72 per cent of 2025 total

Mobile money transactions in Uganda were worth Shs263tn in seven months, and first-half value rose 32.5 per cent, up from 31.2 per cent a year earlier

Customers at a roadside kiosk in Uganda covered in yellow MTN Mobile Money signs, one woman showing a phone to the attendant while a man stands nearby.
9 October 2026

Foreign exchange

Museveni rejects selling dollar reserves to prop up the shilling

Uganda’s reserves stood at $6.52bn in August, nearly double February 2024, as Museveni urges fewer imports instead of dollar sales to support the shilling.

President Yoweri Museveni speaking at a podium bearing the presidential seal during the Independence Day celebration, wearing a white shirt and a maroon, white and gold sash.
8 October 2026

Foreign exchange

Shilling weakens further as MPs ask why reserves are not used

The shilling closed at Shs4,085.71 on Thursday. Traders expect further losses as MPs ask why the central bank has not used its reserves

Close-up of a Ugandan 50,000-shilling banknote with an orange round-cut gemstone resting on it, other notes blurred behind
8 October 2026

Bank lending

Bank lending grows at its fastest rate since 2015

Bank lending in Uganda grew at its fastest annual rate since 2015 in August, led by foreign-currency loans, according to Bank of Uganda data

Single-storey building with a red roof and signs for Centenary Bank's CenteAgent and dfcu Agent, plus Airtel Money and other agent notices by the door.
7 October 2026

Sovereign debt

Foreign buying of Ugandan government debt fades after a record 2025

Non-residents hold $2.7bn of Ugandan government debt after buying $2.2bn in 2025, but quarterly purchases fell to $25.5mn in April to June

A stack of Ugandan shilling banknotes—50,000, 20,000, 10,000, and 5,000—arranged in a currency counting machine.
7 October 2026

Trade deficit

Uganda’s trade deficit hits a record as mineral imports more than double

Uganda’s goods trade deficit reached a record $817mn in August as imports of mineral products excluding petroleum more than doubled, Bank of Uganda figures show

Four men working in an open-pit mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo
6 October 2026

Foreign exchange

Shilling breaches Shs4,000 with reserves nearly double their 2024 level

Uganda's reserves are 86.6 per cent above their February 2024 level, yet the central bank says it plans no dollar sales as the shilling weakens

The crest of the Bank of Uganda on its premises
5 October 2026

Platinum Credit

Platinum Credit draws Shs49bn of bids for Shs20bn of notes

Platinum Credit took Shs30bn of the Shs49.28bn bid for its notes, accepting less than half of the bids for its five-year and eight-year series

Reception area of a Platinum Credit Ltd branch, with two staff members seated at computers behind blue counters and a third in a blue shirt standing between them, below a wall sign bearing the company's logo and tagline
3 October 2026

Thaba Investments

Nearly half of Uganda’s gold exports come from firm Bloomberg links to sanctioned network

Bloomberg says Thaba, behind nearly half of Uganda's gold exports, shares suppliers with a sanctioned refinery, a claim Thaba and Alain Goetz deny

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Irene Muloni, minister for energy and minerals development (right), AGR Business Development Manager Alphonse Katerebe (centre) and two unidentified people stand near gold flakes and ingots at the African Gold Refinery in Entebbe on 20 February 2017. Alain Goetz, the Belgian owner of the refinery, stands next to Mr Museveni, and is partially obscured from view. The refinery was officially launched on 20 February 2017, and is Uganda's first official gold refinery. Uganda's locally mined gold is negligible, but the country is a transit point for gold exports from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, which has large reserves, and Tanzania, one of Africa's largest gold producers.